Pakistan manages the world’s largest contiguous irrigation system, i.e., the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS). This system, which is under increasing pressure from population growth and climate change, provides water, energy and food security for the nation. Indus River System Authority (IRSA) in consultation with Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and Provincial Irrigation Departments (PID’s) distributes the surface water resources of the IBIS between the provinces. Broad principles on how the water resource is to be allocated is described WAA. However, how these principles are interpreted and implemented, is a detailed, complex process. With the aim to capture this process and in so doing to provide a transparent, neutral and consistent procedure.

Forecasting inflows to the IBIS and unaccounted losses/gains, setting reservoir level targets, and then balancing resources between the Jhelum-Chenab and Indus Systems and balancing and sharing shortages between provinces, is being implemented with this Tool. As would be expected, each of these steps is very complex, as are the dependencies between the steps. As a result, the Tool includes multiple ways of implementing the steps, allowing for comparison and contrast between the results from using different methods. The Tool now provides a user-friendly common platform for describing and modelling the water allocation process in the IBIS, supporting exploration and ‘what-if’ analyses. The Tool was formally handed over to IRSA, WAPDA and Provincial Irrigation Departments on 8th December 2020. Before, this tool, WAPDA/IRSA/Provinces were doing the whole exercise manually, which was a cumbersome and time consuming exercise.